The present invention generally relates to bone grafting, and more particularly to repairing and/or filling a void or gap in a bone or bony structure of a patient.
A need exists for improved bone graft materials. Current bone grafting includes the use of autogenous bone as a graft material (i.e., “autografting”). Use of autogenous bone, however, subjects a patient to increased pain and discomfort, and an increased risk of infection, because it requires the patient undergo surgery to recover the autogenous bone for use in the grafting procedure. Current bone grafting also includes the use of bone from a donor as a graft material (e.g., “allografting” from the same species or “xenografting” from a different species). Both allograft bone and xenograft bone, though from natural sources, subject a patient to the risk of disease transmission and graft rejection.
Current bone grafting further includes the use of synthetic bone graft material. Some such synthetic bone graft material is mixed with autograft, allograft, or xenograft bone, and thus still subjects a patient to the risks above. Other disadvantages to current synthetic bone graft material are the lack of sufficient resorbability, lack of sufficient porosity, and increased manufacturing costs due to a high number of component materials. As such, there is a need for an improved synthetic bone graft material that is resorbable and porous, and that helps to reduce manufacturing costs by reducing the number of component materials.